1. Field of the Invention
Devices, systems and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a centrifugal micro fluidic system, a method of operating the centrifugal micro fluidic system, and a centrifugal magnetic position control device used in the centrifugal micro fluidic system for controlling the position of magnetic beads, and more particularly, to a centrifugal magnetic position control device capable of controlling the position of a magnet disposed in a micro fluidic structure using centrifugal and magnetic forces by placing another magnet in a neighboring layer to the micro fluidic structure so as to control the position of magnetic beads in the micro fluidic structure formed in a layer of a disk-shaped platform, a centrifugal micro fluidic system including the centrifugal magnetic position control device, and a method of operating the centrifugal micro fluidic system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A target biomaterial is separated from a biological sample, such as blood plasma, via methods using silica, glass fiber, anion-exchange resin, or magnetic beads. In the method using magnetic beads, magnetic beads having surface functional groups capable of being combined with a target biomaterial are placed in a sample to trap the target biomaterial, and are then separated from the sample in order to extract the target biomaterial from the magnetic beads. Thus, the magnetic beads separation method has been widely used in order to separate cells, proteins, nucleic acids, or other bio-molecules. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,893,881 discloses a method of separating specific target cells using paramagnetic beads coated with antibodies.
Meanwhile, recently, a micro fluidic system that can perform various reactions in a single unit in order to analyze and process a sample solution has been proposed. As one example in this regard, a compact disk (CD)-shaped micro fluidic system which moves a solution sample using a centrifugal force in a compact disk-shaped micro fluidic unit has been developed. Then, to perform a desired task using magnetic beads in the compact disk-shaped micro fluidic system, the position of the magnetic beads should be controlled independently from the movement of the solution sample.